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Barcelona Will Be a Big Test For HotSpot 2.0 Wi-Fi Connections
alphadogg writes "There are currently several million smartphones certified to run on a 'HotSpot 2.0' Wi-Fi network, which promises automatic Wi-Fi authentication and connection, and seamless roaming between different Wi-Fi hotspot brands, and eventually between Wi-Fi and cellular connections. In November, about 400 smartphone users finally got a chance to do so — in Beijing, China. The next big public demonstration of what's confusingly referred to as both Hotspot 2.0 and Next Generation Hotspot will be in February: an estimated 75,000 attendees at the next Mobile World Congress in Barcelona will be able to take part."
Why bother requiring authentication for a bit of bandwidth that costs about 0.01 of a cent per person to provide? If anything this will make the internet a less-free place, with a debit card & address traceable from every packet that's sent.
The only good thing is if the grubby mobile phone network operators get in on this, maybe we will see more powerful wifi standards emerging and we will eventually do away with the proprietary UMTS/LTE standards and hopefully we will eventually see the end of having to pay for bandwidth while on the move (everyone simply runs and shares their own AP, kind of like FON)